


Our Shared Demons

by Polska_1999



Series: Sprint Towards Blackout (Happy Steve Bingo 2018) [21]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Domestic Avengers, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, comfort from nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-22 18:54:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16603640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polska_1999/pseuds/Polska_1999
Summary: You don’t have to be a supersoldier to get super terrible nightmares, but it just so happens that being a supersoldier with experience regarding super terrible nightmares means that you can help others recover from them.





	Our Shared Demons

**Author's Note:**

> For the _Comfort from Nightmares_ square on my **Happy Steve Bingo** card.

Everyone feared something. 

Steve knew that better than anyone else at times, and the fear only intensified when he got his Bucky back. Damaged but not destroyed, cracked but not shattered, Bucky had been working on climbing out of the hellhole HYDRA dumped him in. Daytime was generally successful more often than not, but the nighttime offered less certainty, with nightmares almost always a possibility. As a result, Steve became rather adept at helping Bucky calm down from a nightmare. He hadn’t really expected that skill to be easily transferable to other situations. 

However, when he entered one of Tony’s labs at six in the morning at the request of JARVIS, he discovered that perhaps it was a more broadly useful skill than he previously thought. 

Tony was asleep in his chair, slumped over against the Mark-whatever suit that he had been working on. At first, the billionaire’s slumber looked perfectly normal, but Steve’s enhanced senses allowed for the supersoldier to notice several oddities, including the odd pace of Tony’s breaths. It suddenly made sense why JARVIS called Steve in to check up on Tony. 

Waking up Tony proved to be similar to waking up Bucky, meaning that one had to wake the person up and be ready to dodge a punch. (Or, in this case, a repulsor blast from the partially-built suit that suddenly came to life and attempted to give Steve a new haircut.) Tony woke up disoriented without knowing where he was, and it took a bit for him to calm down. 

Steve offered to let Tony talk about the nightmare, but Tony didn’t want to, so Steve instead offered that they both go get a snack or some breakfast, since it was clear that Tony likely would not be going back to sleep. Steve kept Tony company for most of the morning, staying until Pepper arrived from a business trip in Europe. Tony did end up talking about the nightmare just before Steve left, mentioning that it involved AIM, Pepper, and his house in Malibu. Steve filled in the remaining blanks for himself. 

Some people claimed that nightmares were signs of weakness; Steve believed that they were the lingering ghosts of surviving hell. And if he could help his friends recover after facing their demons in their own minds, then he sure as hell did it and was proud that he could help, that they trusted him to help. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends! In case you can't tell, I'm a total sucker for Steve & Tony friendships, and frankly, I think that these are the types of fluffy bonding stories ware what we all need more of. This one was surprisingly difficult to write, but I blame that on sleep deprivation and midterms and lack of time.
> 
> Most of my works, including this one, are beta-read by the one and only amazingly wonderful [SpaceKeet!](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceKeet/pseuds/SpaceKeet) If you get the chance, go out and give her some love!
> 
> As always, thank you all so much for reading! If you liked it, feel free to drop a kudos or comment if you have something you want to say. Wanna contact me? You can find me on [Tumblr](https://polska-1999.tumblr.com/) or ask me for my Discord in the comments.


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